The Martu are the traditional owners of a large part of central Western Australia which extends from the Great Sandy Desert in the north to around Wiluna in the south. Across this country, Martu share a common law, culture and language.
The Martu were some of the last of Australia’s Indigenous people to make contact with European Australians with many migrating from their desert lands into neighbouring pastoral stations and missions in the 1950s and 1960s. Sometimes this migration followed the Canning Stock Route north to the eastern Kimberley, or south to Wiluna and then east to Warakuna and Warburton.
Old people have first-hand experience of traditional life and have extensive traditional ecological knowledge of their country. This provides an important and time limited opportunity to preserve and transfer this knowledge before they pass away.
Like many Aboriginal people, Martu speak or understand numerous languages. For most Martu, even the children, English is a second or more language.
In 2002, the Martu were awarded native title rights to over 13.6 million hectares of the Western Desert which is referred to as the Martu native title determination. The determination stretches from the Percival Lakes in the north to south of Lake Disappointment, and from near Jigalong and Balfour Downs in the west to the Kiwirrkurra and Ngaanyatjarra native title determinations in the east.
The main communities in the determination are Jigalong, Parnngurr, Punmu and Kunawarritji. However, like many other groups, Martu people now live across Western Australia as marriage, work and health needs require them to move.
Jigalong is the most well-known of the communities having been established as a maintenance depot for the rabbit proof fence. It was made famous as the subject of a movie about three children who walked back 2,400km from Moore River Native Settlement north of Perth. Jigalong was subsequently turned into a mission before being handed over to the Martu people in 1969. The other communities were established in the mid-1980s as a part of the then homelands movement, when people decided to return to live in their country.
Numbers vary during the year but there can be up to 1,000 Martu living in the communities with a further 1,000 living in other localities around the State.
Nyukurni wantajarra kurluwalu kalyulu pungu. Pungkupayi-laju-jananya pujikatu, mulyamiji, parnajarrpa. Jiingulyu-lanyaju-ya kanyinma wantajarra old people-ju. Mayi yarnnga jiingulyu pujimanpa-laju ngalkupayi. Nyinama-laju wuungkungka.
Maayanu-laju tiwa. Jikulyungungka-laju maayanu nyinangu. Katingu-lanyaju-ya. Mayaku-laju-ra nintirringu. Nyinangu-laju, pulawa-laju ngalangu. Jikulyungungka-laju majalpayi ka-laju yanu. Warrkamunu-laju yanama station-karti. Marlakurringu-laju nyinama yalijarrarrinyja. Karlkinju-lanyaju-ya ninti junama. Strelley mapulu-lanyaju-ya manu, yanu-laju Strelley-ngka nyinangu. And old people-pa-ya nyinapayi kurranyi yankunyjajanu. Palunyalu-lanyaju-ya kanyirnu, nyinangu-laju rawa.
Old people-ju-ya kulirnu ngurra marlaku. Jarlu meeting-ya wangkangu. Jikulyungu, Strelley, Hedland, Warralong, parlparri. Old people-ju-ya wajarnu: “Ngurra-la-ngku junu yanu. Yankura-la marlaku. Ngurrakarti-la-ngku-ra yankura walyjakarti. Too much-la walypalamili ngalkuninpa. Kuka-la pujimanpa ngalkura mirrkalurrju.”
Ka-laju yanu. Punmungka-laju nyinangu, Yilyarangka. Nyarralu-ya kakarralu startamunu kayililu-ya startamunu, jiingulyu. Wamangkamarra walypalamilingkamarra-lanyaju-ya katingu. Jiingka-laju rawa nyina. Still-pa-ya wangkapayi old people yarnnga, ngurraku-ra-ya.
Ka-ra-ya wajarnu: “Wangkara-la-ngku-ra pirraku, pirrangka-la nyinara.” Kunawarijingka-ya wangkangu old people. Hedlandpa ngaa, Punmu mapu ngaa, Jigalong mapu, kakarra ngapi, Warburtonwanajanu, Wilunawanajanu-ya yanu kumpinyungkarringu wangkangu Kunawarijingka. “Ngurrakarti-la-ngku marlakurrira, walypalaparniwana-la nyinara. Wamangkamarra-laju-jananya young-pala kanyilkura,” wajarnu-ya. “Ngaa-laju japirninpa governmentpa, pirrangka-lampaju-ngku-ra mayaku. Ngurrangka-la walyjangka nyinara.” Jilanya-ya wangkangu Kunawarijingka.
Yiltangulyu-laju-ngku maya manu jii ngurrangka. Marlaku-lanyaju-ya katingu. Yungkura-ya mayaku, ngulyi-laju kuwarri nyinin mayangka, junu-lampaju-ya. Walypalalu-lampaju-ya helpamunu kinpa nyinapayi.
Kalyu walyja-lampaju-ya old people-ju junu Punmungka, map-pa. Wajalpayi-ya: “Ngurra-la-ngku ngaa kanyilkura, young-pala-la-ngku nintilkura.” Wanyjalpa-laju nyinapayi nyukurni, jiji-lanyaju-ya kanyilpayi, ngurra walyjangka. Junu-lampaju-ya wangka, Kunawarijingka, Punmungka. Kulirnu-rna-jananya. Jiingulyu-rni-ya yungu. KJ-lu-lampaju kanyirninpa. Jilanyarninpa-ya young-palalu, kanyirninpa-laju-ngku ngurra. KJ-lu-lanyaju-janampa old people-ku helpamuninpa. Jiingulyu wangkaku-rna-nyurranya wajarninpa.
A long time ago, as the winter rains poured we would hunt for wild cats, great desert skinks, and sand goannas. That’s how the old people looked after us in winter. We had plenty of food like that to eat, and we camped under shelters we made.
Then we went far away. We left the desert and stayed in Jigalong. They took us. We learned of houses and we ate flour while we were there. We were waiting in Jigalong and then we left. We used to go and work at the station and we came back to stay when it became summer. The others would teach us about this whitefella world. Then the Strelley mob got us and we stayed at Strelley. We joined the old people who had gone there before. They took care of us and we stayed there for a long time.
The old people thought about going back to our homelands. There was a big meeting among people from Jigalong, Strelley, Hedland, Warralong, everywhere. The old people said: “We have left our homelands and we should go back. We should go back to our own country. We are eating too much of the white man’s food. We should eat traditional meat and bush foods.”
So we left Strelley. We stayed at Punmu, at Yilyara. That East mob and North mob started all of this. They brought us away from the white man’s nectar, alcohol. We stayed at Punmu for a long time, and still all the old people were talking strong for their country.
They said: “We should talk for our desert, we should live in the desert.” The old people had a meeting in Kunawarritji. The Hedland, Punmu, Jigalong, East, Warburton, and Wiluna mobs all came together as one in Kunawarritji to talk. “We should go back home, we should live where there are no white people. We should keep our young people away from alcohol,” they said. “We are asking the government for our own houses in our desert.” They talked like that in Kunawarritji.
And we actually got the houses on our own homelands. They brought us back. As their descendants we now live in the houses they gave us. The old people left them for us. Some white people helped us and lived with us too. The old people used to say: “We need to look after our country.” We should live the way we used to live a long time ago, how the old people would look after us on our homelands when we were children. KJ has helped us.
In Punmu the old people made a map with all the waterholes. They told us to look after the country and waterholes and pass on the knowledge. In the Kunawarritji meeting and in Punmu the old people gave us that story, permission to look after country. That's why I talk up for my country. I was listening to the old people, I remember what they said. They gave me that story. KJ has that same story. KJ is holding that story and the young people are following from the old people to look after the country the right way. KJ is doing that work for the old people. I am telling you that story.
Muuki Taylor - Pujiman, KJ founder and Senior Cultural Advisor
